


Not Quite

by knowing



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Essence of Buddie, Hints of Buddie, M/M, POV Outsider, Pre-Slash, pre-Buddie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:48:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24493777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knowing/pseuds/knowing
Summary: “Is that Buck?” Bobby asked, squinting out the window of the truck.It was. They all turned to look, just in time to see Buck lean into the tall - taller than Buck, even - man standing next to him, and kiss him.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Maddie Buckley, Evan "Buck" Buckley/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 285





	Not Quite

**Author's Note:**

> This is all thanks to salvamisandwich, without who this fic would not exist nor would it be as good as it is. Thanks to her and K for beta'ing! All mistakes are mine.

“Quiet without Buck today,” Chim commented mildly. 

He didn’t mean anything by it really, but it _was_ quieter without him. It always was. It wasn’t often that the team had shifts without Buck, but sometimes it just worked out like that. It was even less often that Eddie had a shift without him. 

“Always quiet without our Buck,” Hen said, smiling at him. 

Chimney looked over at Eddie, who had ducked his head a little and smiled, wanting to tease him, poke the bear a little, but before he could Bobby interrupted him. 

“Is that Buck?” Bobby asked, squinting out the window of the truck. 

It was. They all turned to look, just in time to see Buck lean into the tall - taller than Buck, even - man standing next to him, and kiss him. 

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaa—” Chim said.

“Oh my,” Hen said and they made quick best friend eye contact. 

_Are you seeing this?_ Chimney asked with his eyes.

 _Yes, dumbass,_ Hen said back with hers. 

The firetruck passed Buck and his mystery man before any of them had time to react. 

“Uh,” Chimney said, shot another quick glance at Hen, and then turned to look at Eddie.

Eddie was - Eddie was - 

He honestly kind of looked how he had when he was tripping acid, in the seconds before he started crying. His eyes were wide and he looked dazed. If it were anyone else Chimney would have thought he looked like he’d been socked but that wasn’t how Eddie took a punch. Eddie would’ve probably preferred a punch.

Eddie was quiet for the rest of the day, and Chimney spent most of it sending Hen significant looks. About an hour before they were all due to finish their shifts Bobby sent Eddie home. They all watched him leave, silent, but the second he was out of earshot Chimney said, “Not it.” 

“Not it,” Hen said, maybe a second later, and they both turned to look at Bobby. 

He sighed, “Fine, fine. I’ll deal with Eddie. But one of you has to deal with Buck.” 

Hen looked at Chimney and said, “This is all you.” 

“Why?” 

“You’re dating his sister,” Hen said and then walked away.

“She always has to get the last word,” he grumbled. 

“So,” Chimney said, really dragging it out. He was at Maddie’s place, he’d made her dinner, they’d eaten, but he wanted to talk to her before they started drinking. 

“So?” Maddie asked, face open and curious. 

“We, uh,” he began, “Saw something a little - well.” 

“Chimney,” Maddie said, “Just spit out.” 

“You know how Buck wasn’t working today?” 

“Yeah?”

“We saw him, uh, when we were out on a call. Or, actually, we were coming back from a call but - “

“Chimney!” Maddie interrupted. 

“Right, yes,” Chim said. “Okay I’m just going to say it!” 

“Okay,” Maddie said, both her eyebrows raised.

“We saw him - wesawhimkissingaguy,” he said all in a rush.

“What?” 

“We saw him and this guy,” Chimney sighed, “And they were kissing.”

“Oh my God,” Maddie said, “That slut.”

“W _ha_ t?” Chimney asked. Whatever reaction he had expected, it wasn’t that.

Maddie didn’t respond, she was already pulling out her phone and dialing.

“You kissed Richard?” Maddie shouted when Buck picked up instead of a hello, voice louder than Chimney had ever heard her. “R _ich_ ard? Really, Evan?”

“Wait,” Chimney said to deaf ears, “Richard? You know this guy?”

Maddie ignored him to listen to Buck’s equally loud response, “How did you know? Maddie were you spying on me?”

Maddie hit speakerphone and set the phone down on the coffee table so she could pace in circles around it, a previously unheard accent slipping out into both of their voices. 

“I have eyes everywhere!” Maddie said. “Did! You! Kiss! Him!”

“Yes!” Buck shouted back, sounding like he too had put Maddie on speaker and was pacing around _his_ phone. 

“Oh my god,” Maddie shouted again, “You slut!” 

“Mad _die_ ,” Buck whined.

“You said you were just getting lunch! You said you were catching up, not - not reliving high school!” 

Chimney pulled at his phone almost before he knew it, mouth dropping open so wide that his gum fell out. _Maddie knew!! Guy’s name is RICHARD,_ he sent to the group chat. _HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEARTS??_

“I’m an adult, Maddie,” Buck said, voice still whiny, “I can kiss whoever I want.” 

Chimney could not look away, not even to look down at his phone where he was texting the Buck free group chat, cleverly named Open Season.

“Also, he apologized Maddie! He’s, like, an adult now.” 

“He better have,” Maddie said darkly.

“He did! He was very mature about the whole thing.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to kiss him! Just because he was your first doesn’t mean you have to give it up to him the second he gives you some attention.” 

Chimney dropped his phone, right on top of his gum. Maddie spared a glance at him, raising her eyebrows a little before going back to glaring at her phone in place of her brother. He didn’t bother taking the gum off his phone before he was texting. Hen so far was the only one to respond. Mostly she was sending exclamation points. Like, a lot of them. _HE WAS BUCK’S FISRT,_ he sent, and then as an afterthought, corrected it to _first._

“Oh my GOD,” Buck said, sounding more embarrassed than Chimney had ever heard him sound before. He had always kind of thought Buck was without shame, but he was learning all sorts of things about him today. 

“I cannot believe,” Maddie said, “that out of all the people in Hershey—” 

“All fifteen thousand?” Buck interrupted.

“That out of ALL the people in Hershey,” Maddie continued as if Buck hadn’t interrupted her, “You just had to go for a hockey player. Not just a hockey player but the hockey player.”

 _He was a hockey player!!!!_ Chimney sent to the group chat, unsurprised when that was what finally got Bobby to respond. 

_Hershey is the home of an AHL team,_ Bobby sent, as if that was the important part of what Chimney had just sent. 

“He’s not a hockey player anymore! He’s an accountant,” Buck said, in an impetuous little brother tone, as if he had finally gotten one over Maddie. 

“Oh,” Maddie began, swanning around the coffee table, as if she could not physically contain the emotions she was experiencing. Chim could relate. “OH! An accountant, oh well that changes everything.”

“I mean,” Chimney heard Buck say as he sent a quick _accountant!!_ to the group chat, “it sort of does?” 

Maddie’s voice finally dropped down to her normal volume as she said, “Does it, Evan? Does it really?” 

Buck was quiet for a few long seconds, before saying, “Yeah, I think it does.” 

_I don’t think Maddie likes him,_ Chimney types as quietly as he can, keeping himself as still and silent as he had when facing off those crows. 

“Evan,” Maddie said, exasperated. “He used to go by Big Dicky in high school.” 

Chimney lost it. _BICK DICKY_ he sent to the groupchat, plopping down on the ground. _BIG DICKY THE GUY USED TO GO BY BIG DICKY_

Hen sent back a series of keysmashes and Bobby sent a single, succinct, _Jesus Christ._ It was only then Chimney noticed his mistake, when Eddie sent an empty text bubble to the chat, no doubt by accident. 

“Fuck,” Chimney said out loud, quietly enough that Buck didn’t hear him over Maddie’s phone but loud enough that she turned to give him another look. 

He’d been sending updates to their gossip-about-Buck group chat, which had seen a lot of use during the lawsuit and through Buck’s various injuries. Only, he had meant to send it to their Buck _and_ Eddie free chat. 

“How do you even send an empty bubble?” Chimney wondered out loud. 

Hen texted the correct groupchat, saying what they were all thinking: _someone needs to check on Eddie._

Bobby texted back, _already on it._

Chimney made a face at his phone, a whoops face, and wrote back _sorry!!_

“I mean,” Maddie said, “Buck. I mean!” 

“He’s not in the closet anymore!” Buck said back, “He’s like, out and proud. Okay, he’s not like Pride Parade out, but, you know.” 

“Oh, baby,” Maddie said, her voice a particular kind of sweet and kind that Chimney had only ever heard her use with Buck. She had stopped pacing, sitting down on the couch now. 

“He’s also really hot Maddie,” Buck said, and any sympathy that had been shining on Maddie’s beautiful face quickly fell away. “Really hot.” 

_LMAOO_ , Chimney texted, _BUCK SAID HE’S REALLY HOT AND MADDIE IS MAD AGAIN._

“Think with your upstairs head, Evan! Upstairs!” Maddie shouted, jumping up to pace once more. 

_He is tbh,_ Hen sent along with a series of screenshots. 

“Damn,” Chimney said, scrolling through them. Hen had found his Facebook page from just his first name and where he was from, which was kind of scary. From there she had found his Instagram and Chimney was man enough to admit when another man was hot, and this one was, undoubtedly, hot. 

_Hold up_ , Hen sent, _Athena just texted me and told me MICHAEL knew????_

 _MICHAEL???_ Chimney sent back.

“He left you,” Maddie said, suddenly, like she couldn’t help it anymore.

Buck was quiet before he said, “You weren’t there Maddie, you don’t know what happened.”

“No,” she said, her face crumpled, “But I was there after.” 

“You know he was married?” Buck said abruptly changing the subject. Chimney had whiplash from everything he was hearing. He, like everyone in the 118, had noticed that Buck didn’t really talk about his past, and neither did Maddie. Instead, he dropped little tidbits about himself and then moved on without elaborating. Considering how much time they spent together, and how much they all gossiped, it was kind of impressive how tight-lipped Buck had managed to be. 

“Okay?” Maddie said, looking at Chimney now, one eyebrow raised. Chimney looked back even as he kept the group chat informed, raising an eyebrow in turn. 

“Yeah,” Buck said, “And then his wife left him because it turns out _she’s_ gay and in love with one of her coworkers.” 

“Wow.” 

“Yeah, I know! Isn’t that so romantic?” Buck said.

“Oh, Buck, I hope you didn’t say that to his face,” Maddie said as Chimney mouthed _wow_ at her. 

“No, no, he doesn’t care,” Buck said.

“I raised you better than this,” Maddie said, “I know I did.” 

“He’s also got a kid!” Buck said, ignoring Maddie once again. 

_Kid! Lesbian ex wife!_ Chimney sent. 

_There’s a lot to unpack there,_ was all Hen said in return. Which was more than fair. 

“Why’d you kiss him?” Maddie asked.

Chimney looked up from his phone. She had sat down again, holding her phone between her knees with her head bowed down. Buck didn’t answer and Maddie sighed. 

“Are you seeing him again?”

“Yeah, Maddie,” Buck said, “I am.” 

“Oh, Evan,” Maddie said, now cradling the phone in her hands, “Do you want me to come over?”

“I’m not a teenager anymore, Mads,” Buck said.

“I’m coming over.” 

“Maddie,” Buck whined, but he sounded pleased. 

“I’m gonna hang up now,” Maddie said, already standing and looking around for her keys, “Don’t do anything stupid before I get there.” 

Chimney laughed and stood to walk her to the door, picking up her keys where she had left them on a random side table as she always did. He heard Buck laugh and then Maddie say, “Okay, bye, I love you,” all in one breath. 

He looked over at her, pausing where he was walking over to give Maddie her keys. It wasn’t that Maddie and Buck didn’t say I love you to each other, they did, it just wasn’t an every call kind of thing. Usually they just hung up on each other according to some weird established ritual he couldn’t begin to understand. 

Maddie spun to face him, “Where are my—“

“Here you go,” he said, walking up to her, keys in hand. 

“Thank you,” Maddie said, smiling and leaning in for a kiss. 

“Keep me updated!” Chimney shouted after her.

Maddie turned around to give him a little smile and then left to go deal with her drama-ridden baby brother. 

His phone chimed once and then again in quick succession. 

_LOOK AT THIS_ Hen’s text said, along with a link to bigdicky91’s Instagram page, Chimney was honestly a little scared with how fast Hen could find all this stuff. 

“Hen, you fucking genius,” Chimney said, staring down at a picture of Buck, skinny and with a full head of fluffy curls, looking around eighteen with his arm wrapped around another teenager who must have been Richard. That was cute enough, but the real treasure was the caption: _what a beauty #bambi._ There was a deer emoji. 

“Bambi,” Chimney said. “Oh thank you, thank you so much, Big Dicky.”

 _BAMBI,_ Chimney texted in response to Hen.

 _BAMBI,_ Hen replied, and Chimney knew that they were, as always, on the same page. 

Chimney texted Hen directly, not wanting to blow up Bobby’s phone any more than he already had. _How do you think Eddie’s holding up?_

 _No clue,_ Hen sent back, _but I’m having a great time._

Chimney laughed, and then Hen texted again, _did you know Buck used to have brown hair??_

_I’m starting to think I don’t know Buck at all,_ he sent back. 

_Yeah,_ Hen sent, _me too._

**Author's Note:**

> This is an outsider POV of a fic I'm working on that centers around Buck and his past (and also eventual Buddie endgame.) So if you liked Richard he'll be coming back!


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